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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the fruit is fertilised materially affect the ultimate development ? In 

 all these subjects there is much work yet to be done before it will be 

 possible to do more than generalise respecting them. It has been 

 shown by the microscopical examination of large and small fruits of 

 the same varieties, that the actual number of cells in each does not differ 

 in any degree proportionately to the difference in size. The increased 

 development of the larger parts seems in nearly every case to be due 

 mainly to the fact that the individual cells are larger, and that there is 

 a greater proportion of water in the juices or flesh. It has been pointed 

 out that the larger fruits do not contain a greater portion of the sugars 

 or flavouring matters, but rather that these have been diluted and lessened 

 in effect. Much must always depend upon the nature of the soil, and 

 now that the work of the organisms present in soil is becoming more 

 generally understood, there is little doubt that increased light will be 

 thrown upon many of the problems afforded by the diverse results re- 

 corded in the manuring of fruit trees. It is to the nature of the soil we 

 must first look, not merely the chemical constitution, but the mechanical 

 or physical state, and the bacteria-favouring conditions. Here again is 

 a wide field for the student and the cultivator. 



4. Fruit Characters and Description. — To all who are interested in 

 the minute and beautiful variations of organic forms, the principal culti- 

 vated fruits afford as diversified objects as could be desired. But this 

 variability is most difficult, if not impossible, to fix in a written descrip- 

 tion with sufficient character to render a fruit always recognisable under 

 all circumstances. Recognising this, some of the most distinguished 

 pomologists have taken extreme courses in their descriptions of fruits. 

 Some have described individual fruits with the most accurate minuteness 

 of detail, while others have gone to the opposite extreme and reduced their 

 descriptions to a few general characters of the ordinary catalogue type. 

 For purposes of identification both are often useless, the first because 

 instead of taking a type, including the range of chief variations, an 

 individual is selected which might scarcely be recognisable in another 

 district or even in another season. To describe fruits satisfactorily a wide 

 experience with them under diverse conditions is essential, and a quick 

 perception to detect the essential characters.- To Mr. George Lindley 

 (the father of the illustrious Dr. John Lindley, who was so long Secretary 

 of the Royal Horticultural Society) we owe the best of the early volumes 

 in the English language devoted to the description of fruits. In the 

 "Guide to the Orchard," published in 1831 under the editorship of Dr. 

 J. Lindley, we have the work of forty years of close observation, and the 

 descriptions are in the majority of cases models of what such word pic- 

 tures should be — neither too long nor too short, but including all that 

 is essential. The majority of the older varieties can be still readily 

 recognised from these descriptions. 



After the lapse of over a quarter of a century Dr. Robert Hogg took 

 up the great task of describing the leading cultivated fruits of the United 

 Kingdom, and in the "Fruit Manual" he embodied the results of his 

 labours, and to this day it remains the most elaborate and accurate book of 

 reference on the characters of all our home-grown fruits known up to the 

 date of the last edition, namely, 1884. More recently Mr. George Bunyard 



